Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner, driving the No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM, finished fourth in today’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix, at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The duo completed 119 laps of the 2.459-mile, 10-turn circuit during the two-hour-and-forty-minute race. Teammates John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, driving the No. 100 M6 GTLM, finished ninth after power steering repairs in the first hour of the race cost the pair 11 laps.

The BMW highlight of the weekend was a GTD class win for the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 of Bret Curtis and BMW Motorsport driver Jens Klingmann. This marked the very first victory for the new M6 platform in North America. Turner Motorsport also scored the BMW Z4’s first North American win in 2014 on the way to the GTD class championship.

The opening stages of the race saw Auberlen, starting in the fifth position, move past Luhr, starting in fourth, on the opening lap. On the very next lap a strong outside pass of Richard Westbrook’s Ford GT in turn eight saw the Californian take second. Luhr held onto the fifth position, but it quickly became clear that there was a lack of performance with the No. 100 M6. He hung on until pitting on lap 21 where it was determined to take the car to the paddock for repairs to the power steering unit. At the 40 minute mark, Auberlen moved the No. 25 M6 into second on lap 32 and the No. 100 M6, now with John Edwards behind the wheel, rejoined the race 11 laps down. On lap 37 Auberlen pitted under green from second to hand off to Dirk Werner. A quick stop by the No. 25 crew kept the BMW Motorsport driver in second place. Werner set the race’s fastest lap (1:15.482 minutes) on lap 46. With 50 laps complete Werner continued to give strong chase, only .525 seconds behind the leading Corvette.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – July 3, 2016… Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner, driving the No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM, finished third in today’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen for the pair’s second podium finish of the season. Teammates John Edwards and Lucas Luhr finished eighth in the No. 100 M6. Both cars completed 190 laps of the 3.4-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International circuit during the fifth round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The race was won by the No. 67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.

The GTLM class headline in today’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen was the battle between BMW and Ford. Ultimately, Ford was the victor, but for virtually every lap of the race it was either a Ford or a BMW at the front of the field – usually separated by less than one second, even as the checkered flag signaled the end of the race.

At the start Edwards jumped from his third place starting position to take the GLTM class lead as the field snaked through the uphill esses after taking the green flag. He surrendered the lead a few laps later, ultimately dropping to the rear of the class after a problem during a pit stop in the race’s first caution period. Werner, after a flawless stop by the No. 25 M6 crew, had the lead of the GTLM class as the race finished the first hour. Just before the second hour both Werner and Edwards relinquished their seats to Auberlen and Edwards during green flag stops. Auberlen continued in the class lead and Luhr moved up to the fifth spot after quick pit work. At the race’s mid-point Auberlen and Luhr still held the first and fifth positions.